A WRAP party for the 2019 Fearless School Tour took place at ‘The Loft’ on Pennygillam Industrial Estate, hosted by the organisers of the tour, Chris and Nikki Uglow of Oriel Ministries.

The 14-day Fearless tour took place over July in primary schools across Launceston, in a joint initiative between Oriel Ministries and Launceston Police.

It taught children about important topics such as ‘stranger danger’ and County Lines, and with more and more people relying on technology, it is more important than ever to educate young people on the dangers and risks involved in talking to strangers.

The children were asked questions about how much they use mobile phones and how many children play online games with people they don’t know — to which an alarming rate of 80% came about.

The Christian charity Oriel Ministries is run by Chris and Nikki Uglow at their venue on Pennygillam Industrial Estate, known as ‘The Loft’.

Having been running for ten years, the pair have worked with more than 100 schools and reached approximately 180,000 children, spreading important messages on how to stay safe both online and in society.

As well as this, Chris and Nikki make up the Christian pop band L.E.D, which has been established for 14 years and works with children to deliver the important messages surrounding alcohol and drugs, relationships, self worth, identity, gangs and respect.

Following the 14-day Fearless tour, the pair organised a wrap party at The Loft and invited all the young people and their parents along for a celebration.

With around 500 people turning out for the event, children were able to have their faces painted, have a go on the bouncy castle and enjoy music, food and milkshakes amongst other activities.

Chris said: “The wrap party was to celebrate the end of the tour and send the kids off with a memorable moment to go into their summer holidays with.

“The children have had so many messages now, but telling the young people that they are amazing the way they are and being safe and not speaking to people they don’t know is really important.

“We would like to thank the seven businesses who sponsored the tour, and would also like to thank all the volunteers who helped on the night.

“In the future, as the tour was an amazing success with great feedback from headteachers, the police want to look at rolling the scheme out at surrounding schools in places like Callington and Bude, which is really exciting for something that has been so well received.”

Every other Tuesday, Oriel Ministries holds ‘Star Girls’ at their venue on Pennygillam, which is aimed at tween to teen girls aged nine to 15.

Similarly, every other week they also hold ‘Axios’, which are sessions for boys focusing on self esteem and self worth. Every Thursday from 3.30pm to 5pm they also hold ‘Shape Shop’, which is an after school class but also runs through the school holidays, and includes lots of games and activities for the children to take part in.

For further information about Oriel Ministries, visit their Facebook page or their website, www.orielministries.org.